Academics

As a classical school, we are committed to the inherent value and dignity of all human beings, to educating students to their highest potential, and to providing opportunities for students to succeed to the best of their abilities. The values and virtues of a classical education are grounded in the Judeo-Christian understanding of what it means to be human, in ideas that are further developed by the intellectual traditions of Greco-Roman antiquity and medieval Europe. These ideas persist in America's intellectual tradition and in the founding documents of the United States, such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

As a result, our history classes at Thales Academy place unique emphasis on the Western canon and its ideas of individual rights and ordered liberty. Such fundamental principles include the inherent dignity and value of all human beings and the interdependent relationship between limited government, economic freedom, and the rights of individuals. We are also committed to pursuing, contemplating, and delighting in objective truth, even if human understanding is limited in its ability to understand the truth in its fullness.

At the Junior High and High School levels, we focus on the great works of the Western canon to better understand our own intellectual and cultural heritage and the shape that heritage has given to the world we live in. We study traditions outside of the Western canon to understand our own foundations and to form a bridge with peoples of different countries and cultures in the common, universal pursuit of what is good, what is true, and what is beautiful. This classical identity is capable of uniting people of all backgrounds in the worthwhile and lifelong cultivation of the good life. Such an identity, moreover, is neither secular nor religious in nature; instead, it is classical.

We hope that our classes may encourage students to admire this intellectual inheritance and appreciate its literary works, its figures, and its ideas of human dignity, individual rights, and the pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness.

Thales Academy's academic curriculum is designed to encourage students to achieve excellence. Our course of study provides a firm and balanced foundation for future studies, career success, and fulfillment in life, covering a broad range of content knowledge, real world skills, and character development.

At Thales Academy, we:

The Thales Academy tagline, "Developing Classical Thinkers," is at the heart of our curriculum and guides everything we teach. At Thales Academy, we embrace classical education, a systematic, rigorous program rooted in the pursuit of objective truth and develops a student's ability to think critically and deeply about a subject. We appreciate the importance of dialogue and discussion in the classroom, ensuring students actively engage with the curriculum and practice the skills needed for analytical problem-solving and a lifetime of continuous learning.

Our curriculum and approach are influenced by the writings of Dorothy Sayers, who believed educators "must turn back the wheel of progress some four or five hundred years, to the point at which education began to lose sight of its true object, towards the end of the Middle Ages." That "true object" is the ability to reason and to delight in what is true, good, and beautiful. Students develop this skill by studying the medieval Trivium, the arts of grammar, logic, and rhetoric. Sayers' essay ignited the classical education movement by integrating the ways of the Trivium with the developmental stages of students and how students learn best. Such an approach consists of three distinct phases, corresponding to the ways of the Trivium.

At Thales Academy, we are passionate about helping our students attain an excellent foundation that will guide them for years to come. For more information about classical education, see our Resources page.